Coach Graham

When 38 year old Bill Belichick was hired as Head Coach of the Cleveland Browns, he hired his old friend Nick Saban as his Defensive Coordinator. When 38 year old Joe Judge became Head Coach of the Giants, he hired his old friend Patrick Graham.  Both Little Bill and Coach Saban have risen to legendary status, let's see what Coaches Judge and Graham can do.

The case for Graham goes like this: he played DL for Yale. The Ivy League doesn't give out athletic scholarships - so he got in on brain power.  He was a graduate assistant at Wagner, then a position coach (DL, then TE) at Richmond. Then he spent two years assisting Charlie Weis at Notre Dame, before becoming Defensive Line Coach at Toledo.  He quit after one month and joined Belichick in New England. That was clearly a Little Bill and Charlie machination.   He mostly coached LB's and DL's for Belichick  for 6 or 7 years before joining McAdoo's staff with the Giants

After leaving the Giants, he was the Packers Linebackers Coach, where he coached Martinez and Fackrell in 2018. Both players call Graham "the smartest coach I've ever met."

Then, when Belichick assistant Brian Flores got the Dolphins job, he immediately hired Graham as his Defensive Coordinator. They went on to have a down then up season.

When Belichich assistant Joe Judge took over the Giants, he immediately hired Graham away to be his Defensive Coordinator and Assistant Head Coach. That really looked like poaching, but Flores seemed to allow it. Judge, too, refers to Graham as "the smartest coach," he knows.

With the Giants, so far, Graham and the defensive assistants have designed a system that they are currently introducing the team to over Zoom.

The case against Graham is simply this: if he's so smart, why didn't he produce better results in Miami?  Also, who's defense was it? Both Flores and Graham were defensive coaches. Belichick and Saban were able to work out a great D as were Parcells and Belichick. Not Flores and Graham though. It did seem to be improving as the year went on, though.

So, the question is, can he come up with a smart of brilliant D for the Giants? They just got him a bunch of LB's and DB's in Free Agency and the Draft.  And he seems to want to build back to front like Belichick - who does that to force the run and allow his DL's the create 3rd and longs.  We shall see. There's an old saying that the cream always rises to the top.  Rise and shine Coach Graham